


Mutual Admiration Society

by thesocraticstare



Category: Silicon Valley (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-28
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2019-04-29 04:44:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14465289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesocraticstare/pseuds/thesocraticstare
Summary: Just two guys being dudes, giving each other compliments because they love each other





	Mutual Admiration Society

“Jared said that? What—why?”

“I mean, have you seen him? He looks like a normcore Ichabod Crane,” Dinesh said, without taking his eyes off his computer screen.

“There’s a cryptid in Fresno known as the Nightwalker,” Gilfoyle added. “The resemblance is uncanny.”

“Don’t call Jared a cryptid…” Richard began. Gilfoyle shot him a withering look over the top of his glasses. 

Richard sighed. “Listen, I’m just trying to understand. Jared said… he thinks he looks like some kind of human caricature, and you agreed with him? What’s that about?”

“Just what characteristics are you trying to defend here? Unsuccessfully, extremely unsuccessfully,” Dinesh asked, finally turning to give Richard a full-on eyebrow raise. 

“He’s like—he’s tall. And—I don’t know… hair?” Richard made a vague gesture around his own head. “It’s, like. Nice? And his eyes. And he knows... poetry,” he finished, suddenly aware that Dinesh, Gilfoyle, and at least three other employees were staring at him dubiously. 

“Dick, if you want to make Jared feel better about his weird face and body, try buying him some sexy new lingerie. I’ve heard that’s a reliable method for vanilla couples looking to spice up their marriages.”

“Marriage—what—no! Fuck you, Gilfoyle,” Richard sputtered.

Dinesh chimed in, “Or you guys could watch _She’s All That_. You know Jared loves a rom-com. You know, at the end of the movie, you reach up, take off his glasses, let his hair down, and bam! Suddenly the freak becomes the hot chick.”

“That’s—Jared doesn’t even wear glasses.”

“I know that, you idiot, I obviously know what Jared looks like, unlike some of us here. Like, I’ve seen your ooey-gooey glances. You’re in some kind of love-fog. It’s like the fog of war, except it makes you horny for gay morticians.”

“What?! Listen—I don’t have to… you guys are—okay, just because Jared and I are—” Richard cut himself off abruptly. “You know what? This conversation,” he jabbed one finger in Dinesh’s disinterested direction, “Is stupid. And also finished!” 

***

The conversation was still weighing on his mind when he returned to Jared’s condo later that evening, letting himself in with the spare keys Jared had given him. 

He gingerly set a DVD copy of _She’s All That_ down on the coffee table, along with several cartons of takeout, then went over to the kitchen cupboard where Jared kept his everyday china and pulled out a couple of bowls and plates. Jared was seated at his desk, an ice pack pressed to his lips. He’d worked remotely the past couple of days, “Just until the swelling goes down and the team isn’t quite so frozen in horror by my appearance—it’s bad for productivity, and I’d hate for us to get off-track this late in the quarter.”

He swiveled around in his chair as Richard started unpacking dinner, a smile peeking out under the ice pack. “How was work?” Jared asked, even though he had been in semi-constant email contact with Richard all day on a number of administrative matters. “Richard, you didn’t have to pick up food for me, I would’ve just made do…”

“Oh, I went by that Burmese place you like on my way from the office. I figured you wouldn’t want something too spicy. How’s, um, your face?” Jared’s lips were still slightly puffy, but nowhere near as bad as a couple of days prior. 

“Oh, Richard, that’s so thoughtful! Thank you. I’m still a little sore, but it’s nothing time and lidocaine won’t solve.”

“Hmm,” Richard replied noncommittally. He scooped some coconut rice into a bowl, thinking. 

They took a moment to eat in companionable silence, Richard shooting quick glances at Jared’s face now and then under cover of getting himself another chapati. Finally he leaned back with a sigh. Jared turned to him immediately, all attention. 

“Hey… Jared. Listen. About your—the whole, uh. Face thing. I was talking to Dinesh and Gilfoyle, and they said… you have some, I don’t know, hangups? About your…” Richard trailed off, cringing at himself. What the fuck was he doing? Pep-talks were severely outside his purview. If anything, they were Jared’s stock in trade. But if Dinesh and Gilfoyle were to be trusted, he had to say something. “Um…”

Jared just smiled, unfazed. “Richard, I appreciate it, but you don’t need to worry. I’ve gotten this far in life while avoiding reflective surfaces! And, really, physical attractiveness isn’t everything. I’d like to imagine any hypothetical life partner will be able to overlook that lack on my part.”

Richard scoffed, tossing his chopsticks into an empty carton. “Are you serious? You’re, like, the best-looking guy I know. You look like… I don’t know. A normal person? I mean, most of the guys in the Valley look like literal trolls. There’s no way we could do anything except work in tech, behind a screen 12 hours a day. Except maybe, like, I don’t know.” He grimaced a little at himself. “Maybe I could imagine myself as that one weird high school math teacher you seen in dumb teen movies. With permanent pit-stains and pants that don’t fit right.”

“Richard,” Jared said. Richard jumped a little; the tone of Jared’s voice was impassioned, almost angry. “How could you think that? You’re—well.” He blushed, and Richard felt his heart, inexplicably, start pounding. “You’re… beautiful. Everything about you. You’re so—kind, and so smart, and—”

“Yeah,” Richard said, trying for airy but only making it as far as embarrassed. “I mean—that’s—uh. Thank you, Jared. But that’s—I mean, physically, though. I’m kind of a ghoul.” He laughed, but Jared stayed silent. “But you’re. You look like. Um.” Richard cast his eyes around Jared’s living room, a shade desperately, unable to make eye contact. “You’re. Handsome.”

As soon as the word was out of his mouth, Richard had a kind of sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. What the hell kind of word was “handsome”? Or “beautiful,” for that matter—but that was just Jared being Jared—obviously not, like, any kind of realistic assessment—

He was halfway down the anxiety spiral when Jared laid a gentle hand on his arm, shocking him back to the real world. “Richard,” he breathed. Richard looked up, startled; sure enough, there were already tears standing in Jared’s impossibly clear blue eyes. Richard’s heart started pounding again, weirdly; he had seen Jared cry an unusual number of times, but generally it made him feel vaguely guilty, not—whatever this sudden feeling was. He cleared his throat, trying to mask his confusion. 

“Um,” he said, then cleared his throat again. Jared’s forgotten ice pack was quietly melting into a small puddle on the table, he noted. He looked up again. Jared was smiling in that unrestrainedly joyful way of his, tears glittering just at the corners of his eyes, and Richard’s heart ached a little, looking at him. 

“Richard,” he said again. “I know I’m… hardly an impartial judge of human pulchritude—But. Please believe me.” He laughed a little. “When I saw the photos of you at the Tech Awards gala—I thought—well, goodness. You looked so dashing. Your eyes, your hair, your physique…” Richard’s face felt spectacularly hot. “You just looked… so perfect. I thought—it’s no wonder I—" It was unusual for Jared to struggle to find the right words; his eyelashes fluttered as he hesitated. “You’re the complete package. Brains and beauty. And—yours is the kind of beauty that… that makes everything else more beautiful, too. You make everything a bit—lighter. To me. For me.”

Richard felt a little like he’d been socked in the solar plexus, or had his legs knocked out from under him. Blushing hard, he managed to stammer, “I’m. Um. That’s—like. You, uh. If… if you really… believe that. Then. You should believe me—that you’re—there’s no reason for you to feel, like. Bad about your face. Or like, in general. Like, if you really think I’m uh. Good-looking.” He paused. “Then by comparison… you’re definitely. Handsome. Um. Very.” Jared looked torn between humble oh-no-not-me-surely and irrepressible happiness. “You’re the only person I know who smiles like that,” Richard said without thinking, and Jared smiled if anything even harder. “Also, you’re like, genuinely a good person. In this way that’s like, not pushy or anything, but it makes me want to be… better. You’re just, like, handsome and nice and… I like… the way you do things,” he finished, lamely. 

“Richard,” Jared said. His face was pink, but it was hard to tell if it was from a lingering reaction to the saline injections or maybe something else. “I know this is. But. Could I, please,” and he opened his arms just slightly, hardly daring to look Richard in the eye; but Richard was already nodding, hard. 

“Yeah,” he said—and then Jared’s wiry arms were around him, his long nose nudging gently into Richard’s hair. Richard gasped, just once, suddenly remembering that he had used Jared’s shampoo that morning. He loved how it smelled: kind of citrusy, but mostly just familiar, comforting. His arms went up around Jared’s back, face tucked under his chin, against the delicate skin of his throat. 

“Jared,” he whispered. “Can I tell you something?” He felt Jared’s nod against the top of his head. He closed his eyes. “I think. You’re… I think you’re probably my best friend.”

Jared made a funny little sound, and his arms tightened momentarily around Richard’s torso. He pulled back, and then they were gazing at each other, Richard’s heart going like timpani in his ears; Jared’s eyes slid down to focus on his mouth, and he leaned forward, closing his own eyes—-

The sound of his phone ringing on the coffee table made him jump vertically upwards about four feet. He landed like a gymnast completing a spectacularly botched dismount and almost put his hand directly into the plate of leftover glass noodles, fumbling for his still-ringing phone with the other. 

“Monica! What the fuck!” he shouted into the phone. “Jesus Christ! It’s like—the middle of the goddamn night, what the fuck is going on?”

“It’s seven p.m., Richard,” Monica’s voice calmly informed him. “Uh, is this a bad time? I was just calling to check on Jared. I heard from your PR agent—she said he had some cosmetic surgery mishap?”

“Jesus, Monica, you could call him directly—”

“Okay, okay, I just assumed you were with him. I’ll try his phone—”

“No!” Richard grasped at his own hair with the hand not clutching his phone. He glanced over: Jared was standing to one side of the coffee table, collecting the dirty plates into a neat stack to take to the kitchen. He looked up and their eyes met, and Richard felt himself blushing again. “No, look, maybe—let’s do a call tomorrow. He’ll be back in the office tomorrow. And he’s looking fine. Better than—better than fine. I mean, he’s looking normal. Like usual.” Jared smiled, his normal, usual, beautiful smile. Richard almost dropped the phone. 

“I have an on-site meeting tomorrow,” Monica’s voice cut back in. “A new startup for crowd-sourcing funds to support legal fees for the indigent. I love a little do-gooderism in the morning.” She snorted a laugh. Richard was barely paying attention, instead watching as Jared took their dishes into the kitchen and started washing up. “Anyway, I’ll check in with you two later. Oh, if Jared’s interested, though, tell him a friend of mine just had this procedure done where they grind down your browbone with this thing that looks like a power sander. She looks great.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Richard said. “Okay. Tomorrow.” He hung up. Then he turned his phone off, and set it very carefully back down on the coffee table. He heard the taps turning off in the kitchen and swallowed, took a deep breath, and walked the few steps to Jared’s side.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to @mare-bare on Tumblr for this great fic concept! I hope this isn't too similar to the other pieces that've already been posted along these same lines (and which I have heartily enjoyed reading). Also? I love these nerds.


End file.
